The present invention relates to a motorized toy system having a toy (i.e.. a vehicle or the like) designed for movement on a designated path. For ease of description, the toy's designated path will be termed herein a track.
One conventional motorized toy system, disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 185283/1989. includes a track, on which a motorized toy travels, the track including permanent magnets continually disposed at constant intervals on a surface of a central portion thereof in its longitudinal direction. The permanent magnets are positioned so that their polarities are alternated. The track on which the toy travels is mounted on a board having printed armatures (pole plates connected to a power supply) which are continually disposed so that the polarities of the armatures also are alternated. The body of the conventional motorized toy is equipped with wheels, each of which is composed of a magnetic material, and three current collectors contiguous to the armatures on the track. The current collectors have rod-like tip parts protruding from the underside of the toy body, and the rod-like tip parts are inserted into central holes of electromagnets loaded thereon.
However, the above-described conventional motorized toy has the following problems:
(1) High voltage must be applied to allow the motorized toy to travel on a vertical or looped portion of the track. This high voltage results in the generation of a large amount of heat, thereby heating the toy body up to an undesirably high temperature. Thus, handling or grasping the conventional toy with an operator's (e.g., a child) unprotected hand is difficult, and moreover is unsafe. While strong magnets for increasing the magnetism thereof may be used to provide better handling characteristics of the toy, this is costly and makes the device larger in size;
(2) The rod-like current collectors, inserted in the central holes of the electromagnets and protruding in a perpendicular direction thereto, are arranged to contact the armatures disposed on the printed circuit board when the current collectors are depressed by a leaf spring. However, this contact is not necessarily continuous nor uniform due to surface variations in the track, and hence the contact between the current collectors and the armatures is likely to be broken while the toy travels on the track. This serves to de-energize the toy. Additionally, the protrusions of the central current collectors become elongated in a looped path, resulting in non-uniform contact between the central current collectors and the armatures. As a result, the current collectors and the armatures easily deteriorate because of this non-uniform contact. Furthermore, adjusting the leaf spring pressures acting on the armatures of the respective current collectors so that they constantly are uniform is difficult: and
(3) The armature-printed circuit board disposed above the surface of the central portion of the track is pushed in the longitudinal direction by the rod-like like tip parts of the current collectors. Therefore, the abrasion inherent to a traveling operation is accelerated, and the toy's life-span diminishes.